Sprint preps $100 unlimited plan as subs tumble

updated 10:15 am EST, Thu February 28, 2008

by MacNN Staff

Sprint Simply Everything

Sprint saw one of its worst quarters in recent history late last year, the company reported this morning. The phone provider drew a nearly $29.5 billion loss for the calendar quarter ended in December and noted that it had lost 683,000 customers over the same period versus gains from nearly all its rivals. This is only set to worsen as another 1.2 million are expected to drop subscriptions by the end of the current quarter, according to the carrier's guidance. The news is said to have surprised even new CEO Dan Hesse, who noted that Sprint had borrowed $2.5 billion and that it would take a long time to recover from its recent history.

"To be frank, the issues we face are more difficult than what I expected to find," he said.

The losses are said to be the result of multiple factors but often center around the company's customer support quality, which is widely acknowledged to have dropped off sharply in recent years.

As part of its response, Sprint says it will now offer a $100 unlimited calling plan for cellphones beginning this Friday. Known as Simply Everything, the service is set to exceed similar plans unveiled in recent days by other major American carriers, including AT&T and Verizon: data, text messaging, GPS mapping, and streaming services for both music and video are all included in the package. The upgrade applies to both normal customers as well as users of the push-to-talk iDEN network and does not require a contract extension for existing users, according to the company. Sprint also intends to offer a $5 monthly discount for each additional line added to the plan.

While not as aggressive as the rumored $60 calling-only plan, the number of features may instigate an expected price war between carriers as each tries to offer more features than the other. While Verizon's plan is normally limited to calls alone on traditional "feature phones," AT&T retaliated the same day by offering a similar plan for BlackBerries, the iPhone, and similar smartphones normally exempt from unlimited deals. A T-Mobile plan also introduced at the same time countered previous offerings by adding unlimited text messaging to its phone service.

Congratulations on getting them to give you such a great deal Psdenno! Apparently it takes hemorrhaging subscribers for several months before they are learn from their errors.

When I threatened to drop my service a few months ago, all I got was combative and condescending arguments from the cust.svc rep. She actually had the nerve to ridicule me and say "you'll be back", "the phones have been ringing off the hook from people signing up for new service". Quite a different tone from "here - take a new Centro for $50."

This is an article about Sprint....keep clicking testudo, someone will eventually listen.

I like my Sprint/Nextel phone, good service, good price, and never needed customer support except to upgrade recently, they gave me a sweet deal. I'm probably among the few, according to the numbers, though.

I don't understand. did they actually lose 25 billion$ Or did they just show that loss on paper?

Also, i have sprint and they completely suck. They really stink. They couldn't turn off incoming text messages or reimburse me after I got like 500 from an automatic account that the person who had the phone # previous to me had used for some online dating c***.

Then instead of reimbursing me, they told me i should pony up $5 per month for unlimited. I almost reached over the phone line and tore the heart out of the customer support person.

It's great to see that Sprint is paying attention to their languishing iDEN network that powers all of the walkie-talkie phones. To say the truth, I'm fed up with iDEN (slow data, virtually featureless phones), but I'm happy that Sprint isn't leaving Nextel users paying outrageous service rates.

Sprint's customer service is disorganized and atrocious and their phone selection is unexciting. However, the phone service itself--at least in my area--is rock solid. In fact its almost as good as a landline since I haven't had a dropped call in 6 months. I love the hardware of the iphone and I may get one someday--but all of my friends who have iphones are constantly getting disconnected or have poor connections. I'm hoping the 3G iphone fixes that. Besides, as bad as Sprint is AT&T doesn't exactly excel in customer service either.

I actually like my Sprint Palm Treo. Sprint technically has a very good network with a large and fast 3G data footprint. I guess they spent all their money on the network and had nothing left to pay their customer service reps, hence the crappy service, but I never talk to them, I manage my account almost 100% over the internet.

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